Road bikes are usually a poor choice for lights so that's where I started.

After testing a few different positions with mounting clamps, came up with a mounting system that was both simple, strong, left the bars completely free, and was reasonably easy (for me or anyone else) to fabricate. All that's really required is a short length of handlebar with some threaded inserts epoxied into the ends. I used brass 1/4-20 tripod adapters simply because I had some spares. The steel mounting bracket that comes with the light was tossed and the unit simply bolted to the end of the modified tube. The tube length can be strategic. The correct length will let you add an additional light (or two) between the first two. The units fasten securely to each other and no additional mounting points are needed on the bar. The lights can be aimed as an assembly simply by loosening the screws on the clamping mounts and rotating the mounting bar itself. Sorry - no quick releases. Everything is securely bolted in place. Except the batteries, which can be easily removed for recharging.

Just for the record, there are a couple bicycle handlebar mounting options offered for these lights - one that uses an adapter and a Trail Tech interface. I didn't like it - now THAT'S clunky! There's also a dedicated model ($18) that mounts a single light to a bar. Perfect for most hybrids and mtb bikes, but not ideal for STI road bikes because of the cable routing. The DIY solution is more expensive, more flexible, more rigid and works with anything else. YMMD




There's room to slip a third unit in between those two and even add two more - one at each end - without impacting hand space at all. But - twin elliptical beams seem about as much as I need to run in the street - with or without streetlights. Partly because I won't deliberately ride a road bike anywhere that the road is in really poor condition or when the weather turns sour. These lights don't have more reach - they have more spread. As a result - a single elliptical light actually appears dimmer than a spot - even though they have the same output. But the light distribution in the elliptical is unbelievably even and stacking multiple lights overcomes any shortcomings. In this case two was sufficient. Its possible to mount multiple lights and aim them differently but its overkill and a little more complicated. As it is these can reach out to 100 feet and a cyclist really doesn't need more than that. And a helmet mount is a simpler supplement.

But here are some examples anyway. No change to the mounting hardware - the additional lights were just clipped onto the existing ones and plugged into the harness.




For the record - the helmet mount pictured in part one was just a reworked helmet mount from a Petzl halogen headlamp. Those are long discontinued. However, I've been looking at the GoPro mounts and think that with some simple machining, the mounting lug for the light could be made to drop right in. Those mounting lugs are modular, removable, replaceable units and its possible that one of the suppliers might be willing to do a short production run if enough people show interest


I goofed again - f8 instead of f4 so relative to MTBR standards - this is a little dim but probably more representative anyway. Much prefer this coverage to the spot myself. Course its always possible to ride with both with the spot on the helmet!

Again, my first choice for battery position is an inside jacket, but there's still the bottle cage and I have occasionally mounted a battery pack on the stem. A Metz 45 mounting bracket will bolt directly to the steering tube and a battery can be strapped above or below it. Yeah - sometimes it makes a good tripod too. One of the advantages I find with this setup is longer run-times and simplified battery management. I need to manage a maximum of two batteries to get 9 hours of run time from two lights and can link them into one pack.Some people only use lights at night. I can run these all day is I have to ride in traffic and not worry about power.



So here are a few more samples: All of these are part of my commute anyway.








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Maybe I shouda stopped there, but I was more than a little curious about how things could work off-road with even more light. And that Lupine Betty looked like it wasted a lot of that output by blasting it into thin air instead of putting it on the ground.

So we go to part 3